Teen who hacked Apple thought it would earn him a job

This was the second teenager in Australia to hack Apple's secure servers. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

A second Australian teenager who hacked into Apple’s computer systems has said that he did it because he thought it would help earn him a job at Apple.

The unnamed teen was 13 when he hacked into Apple’s mainframe. Now 17 years old, he recently plead guilty to multiple computing hacking charges in an Adelaide Youth Court.

The hack involved creating fake digital credentials which fooled Apple’s server into thinking he was an Apple employee. According to the teen’s lawyer, he was not aware of how serious the action was.

“He had no idea about the seriousness of the offence and hoped that when it was discovered that he might gain employment at this company,” his lawyer argued. “He didn’t know this was going to lead to anything other than a job at the end of it. [A related incident] happened in Europe, a similar person got caught, and they ended up getting employed by the company.”

Apple didn’t suffer any intellectual property loss or financial damage as part of the hack. The teen had no conviction recorded, and was given a good behavior probation period of nine months. This was because it could impact his future employment opportunities. He is due to study cyber security and criminology at university.

“He is clearly someone who is a gifted individual when it comes to information technology,” said Magistrate David White. “That being said, those who have this advantage of being gifted doesn’t give them the right to abuse that gift.” White added that the teen, “must remain on the straight and narrow and use [their] gifts for good rather than evil.”

The second teen charged

The case is related to another involving an Australian teen who also hacked into Apple’s servers. That teen was 16 years old when the first hacking incident took place. They were also given probation in place of a jail sentence, with no conviction recorded.

The case first came to light when Apple discovered the hack and passed details on to the FBI, who subsequently shared them with Australian authorities.